Nearly a quarter of Ontarians, and even more men, say domestic violence victims sometimes bring it on themselves.

An Angus Reid poll released Tuesday found 24% of Ontarians — 14% of women and 34% of men — say it’s possible for a victim to bring abuse upon themselves.

"Abuse is always the responsibility of the abuser," Renee Weekes, chair of the board of directors at Interval House, the shelter that commissioned the survey, said in a statement.

"There is no action or choice by a victim that can justify abuse. Women who experience violence need to know that abuse is never their fault and that there are resources in the community to support them."

Of those polled, 76% would intervene if they personally witnessed abuse, 56% if they saw bruises and 58% if someone told them their partner abused them.

But another 17% said it wouldn’t be their place, no matter what.

Weekes said the number of people who wouldn’t intervene is "shocking."

"Our community must begin to move to an attitude of zero tolerance for violence and empathy for victims if we ever want to see an end to the private hell experienced by so many women," she said.

Angus Reid polled 805 Ontario adults from its Angus Reid Forum panellists on Feb, 18 and 19. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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